Chapter 3

Chapter 3

               “Why did you decide to sit up here with me?” Ellie asked of Sloane late into their traveling. The four had found excuses to pass one another, to meet at the bathroom, to discuss books, and even to buy drinks from a woman who came through every two hours. Still they always went back to their original companions to not raise any suspicions.

               “What do you mean?” Sloane asked her.

               “I mean, you are obviously into Rhapsody…”

               “Wait, are you dumb?” Sloane asked, sounding angry at Ellie’s question.

               “You know I am not,” Ellie snapped.

               “You could have fooled me,” Sloane snapped. “First, your sister is with Jacen. Did you not see them dancing back there?”

               “Wait? She is? Since when?” Ellie did not stop herself this time. She looked back at Jacen and Rhapsody, at how close they were sitting together in silence, her flipping through a magazine and him just closing his eyes and meditating.

               “All winter, at the very least,” Sloane said. “That’s at least when they told me.”

               “I don’t get why she didn’t tell me,” Ellie grumbled. “All of this about her not being able to do this without me, and this is all for… This is all because she wants to stay with Jacen, isn’t it?”

               The flash in her mind caused her fury to rise. She could see it, not just the dancing at the temple, but how she spent more and more time alone with Jacen. She had gone out more with just Jacen, leaving Ellie alone with Sloane, or alone all together. The glances, the touching, of course they had been falling in love. Ellie was not mad at her sister for being in love, she was mad at her sister for hiding it, then lying about what this was.

               It was too late now, though. Ellie was on the train and traveling to Blue City. If she turned back now she could be put to death for helping them escape. She brought her hands to her throat, imagining being beheaded. No, they would not behead her, they would shoot her. Would she be brought behind a shed and shot to death? That sounded like it could be even more agonizing if the bullets did not kill her instantly.

               “She knew you would talk her out of running if she told you,” Sloane explained. “You always have a way of changing her mind, and everyone else’s. She thought if she did not give you a choice you would not have time to talk your way out of it.”

               Ellie turned away from Rhapsody and Jacen and clenched her fists. “I’m going home,” she decided. “I am getting off at Blue City and I’m going home.”

               “Ellie,” Sloane began.

               “No, that’s horrible of her,” Ellie argued. “She lied to me. This is so she can be happy and in love, and I’m happy for her, but if I return perhaps I can pretend I don’t know what happened. I can’t run away and pretend this isn’t all for Jacen.”

               “It’s not,” Sloane argued. “I’m here, you’re here. It’s because we didn’t want to live without each other. At the capital we would all be separated. Who knows what they would do with someone like Jacen, but Rhapsody would be used beyond her capacity. She is tired after healing someone’s cold. Could you imagine how ragged she would be healing people in a hospital, or people who were at war?”

               “We aren’t at war,” Ellie argued.

               “Not today,” Sloane agreed. “But do you believe there won’t be a war, or skirmish, or fight at all in the next ten years, twenty years? And then what happens to me? I have perfect aim, but as a soldier I will still be put into dangerous situations, fighting for a capital I do not believe in.”

               “Let’s argue the other side,” Ellie said, and she held up her hand when Sloane opened his mouth to retort before she could state her own argument. “I am not saying I disagree with why you want to leave, but if you go to the capital you will be more well off than even your father was. The capital takes care of all of your expenses for the rest of your life. You literally want for nothing.”

               “But, to get that, I have to jump when they snap their fingers,” Sloane said. “I lose the freedom to say, no, not today, because if the government wants something from me, I do it, whether I agree or not.”

               “In what job are you given a choice to do or not do your job?” Ellie asked him. “If you want to get paid, you do the work. You, however, will get paid an exorbitant amount.”

               “That’s not true,” Sloane said. “We are paid very little, we just do not have to pay for many things because the government will pick up the tab for most things. Groceries, delivered to the house they pick out for us. We need furniture? Picked out for us, for the house they picked out for us. My father tried to make this sound incredible, because obviously the government would only pick top of the line things, but I think he was just trying to convince me to go. My father is using me as a pawn as much as the government is using me as a pawn.”

               “If you hadn’t been born with a gift, what would you have done instead?” Ellie asked him. “Would you have joined your father’s footsteps?”

               “Obviously not,” Sloane laughed. “Even before I figured out what I could do, could you have pictured me being a government official? My father always wanted that, but I always figured I would join a labor force. Maybe I would be a miner, or be a contractor.”

               Ellie shook her head and said, “If given the choice, I would have gone to the capital,” she said. “Struggling has been hard. Yes, we have a good house, but there were nights where we ate potato soup for dinner because we could not afford a meat to put into it. We never starved, but we certainly went without. Plus, I would want to help people.”

               “What about David?” Sloane asked her. “You don’t feel that was a warning?”

               David, Ellie’s brother. He was two years ahead of Rhapsody. They had not seen him often in those two years since he went away. The first time he came home for a visit had been fine, but the second time he had come home disfigured. The flame haired oldest Delano had a scar that ran up his cheek and into his scalp. Along that scar had once been his eye, but it was no longer there. He refused to say how it happened, only that an experiment had gone wrong. He had been unable to heal himself fully, he did not have the energy. That was as far as he could go before he passed out. When he awoke it was too late to regenerate anymore than he had.

               Ellie had had nightmares of his face for weeks afterward. She wrote him letters every day, just wanting to send her love to him, hoping he kept up a positive attitude. He did not. He rarely wrote back, but when he did they were all addressed to Ellie only. They were short letters, mostly just sending his love. Whatever it was that had happened he was unable to talk about, she had gathered that much. Still, she missed him and when he had come home for New Years that year she had been ecstatic. She had stayed up all night with him talking, even if it was about frivolous things such as food and dresses. He talked to her about certain things around the capital, careful to not delve too deep into his own life, but telling her about schools in the capital and shops where the highest fashion could be found. Ellie had been to the capital once, when David had left them in his 20^th year on New Year’s Day. The end of winter, the beginning of spring, and the changing of a life that was only 20 years in the making.

               She had seen very little that day. Her parents had wanted to leave as soon as David entered the compound, but Ellie had stood there, watching for as long as she could, watching Bastian Gentile, the president of the country, welcoming the new people, all two of them, into his compound.

               “Our fathers are fans of the government,” Sloane pointed out. “The difference here is you listen to what your father has to say. I see how my father is, and knowing he is a man that runs this country disgusts me. He is a horrible person who does things for his own means. You are smarter than that.”

               “I… did not say I believe in the government, per se,” Ellie added. “I actually was thinking as we passed through Grange how horrible they are to those people. But…”

               “You were willing to take advantage of that if you think it would be all right to live off of the government, knowing they will give you anything, it has to come from somewhere. It comes from people like that.”

               Ellie fell silent and Sloane reached over, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her close. “You’re too tired to have your world shattered like that right now. Why don’t you try to get some sleep? You haven’t slept yet and we have a long ride ahead of us. It takes days to get to the port.”

               “I can’t sleep, not until we get through Blue City,” Ellie insisted.

               “Why?” Sloane asked.

               “I’m not sure,” she said honestly. “I just can’t relax.”

               They fell silent and she tried hard not to reflect on his words. In that conversation Sloane had proven to be more thoughtful than she had ever heard him before. His arguments were solid, and she had lost. She was not sure she even believed in what she had been arguing, but she did believe that running was not solving the problem. Rhapsody had explained her disdain for Baye which stemmed from her inaction, but running away was just another sort of inaction.

               Ellie felt her eyelids drifting closed despite her better judgment. She wanted to sleep, but she wanted to stay awake. The warring factions in her system fought until she was asleep only dreaming about warring factions. It was not a peaceful sleep, but it was sleep all the same.

               A sleep that was interrupted by the train screeching to a halt. It was so jolting that everyone slid forward and out of their seats and onto the floor. Ellie oofed and grabbed at Sloane, who was grabbing at her as well, hoping to cushion each other from any further sliding. The brakes on the train made a screeching sound that echoed through the cars, but ultimately halted as the train stopped completely. Everyone slide back and bumped into their original seats. Ellie was definitely going to be bruised later, but she could live with bruises.

               Everyone in the car, all 20 or so people, began to stand, looking around. The ticketer from before who had stood at the door came through the car and walked passed them all and from the car to the next car. He looked panicked while at the same time trying to appear calm. He had not been expecting that stop either.

               Ellie glanced out the window closest to her, then the window on the other side of the car. She noticed it through the other window. There were several carriages parked out next to the train. Ellie would recognize the uniform anywhere. The sleek black look with silver lining meant they were not just soldiers for the capital, they were high ranking soldiers for the capital. Her eyes focused on a man with copper hair and a tight jaw. She could not see him well enough to make out a lot of details, but she could recognize someone in charge when she saw one.

               “Shit,” Sloane muttered.

               Ellie’s sentiments exactly. They knew. They not only knew quickly, they had been fast enough to get ahead of them. She did not know what to do and was starting to panic. The door behind her opened without the man working it and two soldiers stepped onto the train. The ticketer came back through and held up his hands. “Sirs, you could have hurt our passengers.”

               One of the soldiers, a bored look on his face, said, “If no one is dead, it’s a good day.”

               Ellie clasped her hands together, pleading that they would not see them. The soldiers walked up the aisles, looking back and forth at the passengers. The ticketer was not giving up, trying to ask them what they needed.

               “We are looking for criminals,” the soldier said, “giving us jurisdiction over your train. Now, you can either let us do our jobs, or you can go outside and argue with the general.”

               The ticketer visibly shook and he stepped to the side, letting the soldiers walk past him and to the next car. The soldiers had walked right past them. Perhaps it was not them they were after. Ellie tried hard not to glance around like a lost doe, keeping her head forward. Sloane, however, was not being as subtle, sitting sideways in his seat and watching what was happening. One arm was outstretched over his seat, the other across his body so that his hand rested on his revolver.

               “You look obvious,” Ellie hissed.

               “It’s more obvious to not look around,” Sloane commented. “But just in case, I’m going down fighting.”

               “Sloane,” Ellie used his name as a warning, but she looked back when the man she assumed was the general stepped onto the train. He filled the back of the train with his girth. He was a large man who looked like he could lift a mountain. She had thought he looked smaller from the window, but that would make sense seeing him from the distance. He appeared larger than life now.

               “Good afternoon everyone,” the general said, stepping further onto the train and glancing at the passengers who had all turned to watch him. “I am sorry to disturb your day. I know you are on your way to Blue City and just want to keep moving, but we have a few people that we need to look for. Once we have them we will let you go about your day.”

               Ellie held her breath, once again praying that she would not be found, that this was about something else. The general turned his eyes directly on her and smiled. He stomped over to her and pulled the hat from her head, her scarlet hair tumbling about her shoulders.

               “Miss Delano, good to see you,” the general smiled. “And Mr. Rafferty, I bet your father is quite disappointed in you right now.”

               “He’s always disappointed with me,” Sloane said honestly.

               “Well, I can see why,” the general said, losing his smile. He glanced back directly at Jacen and Rhapsody and nodded his head at them. “Come on, your presence on this train is putting these poor people in danger. If you come quietly no harm comes to them.”

               “And what about us?” Rhapsody snapped from her seat.

               “I guarantee nothing,” the general was again smiling. “This is up to Bastian Gentile, not me. Why don’t you come along now.”

               Ellie began to stand, not willing to put others in danger because she ran away, but Sloane and Jacen were not ready to go down without a fight. Sloane pulled his revolver and Jacen’s fingers turned to flame. The general glanced at the men and said, “Do you think you two could possibly beat me?”

               “I have perfect aim,” Sloane told him.

               The general grabbed Ellie and pulled her in front of him and she felt the barrel of a gun in her back, her eyes widening. The general nodded at Sloane and said, “Perhaps you do, and perhaps you could kill me, but not before I kill her.”

               Ellie felt tears running down her cheeks more than felt the sobs in her throat. The general ran a hand down the side of her face and said, “It would be a shame to take this life so soon.” He grabbed her chin, hard, keeping her in place, the gun pressing further into her back. “It’s your choice if I kill Eleanore or if we all just get off of the train.”

               Sloane put his gun back in his waistband, but Jacen was still on fire. The general released Ellie, letting her drop to the floor, but only so he could pull his gun up and give off two shots before she even hit the ground. Sloane was on his way to Ellie, to gather her back towards him, but Ellie saw it on her way down. She saw the blood that splattered from both Jacen and her sister.

               Jacen had been on fire enough that when his body hit the seat the seats caught fire around him. Rhapsody’s body hit the seat next to him and the fire began crawling up her arm. Ellie was aware she was screaming, even as someone pulled her to her feet. It was not Sloane, he was being dragged away from her.

               “Take the girl’s body,” the general was saying, heading back to the door and off of the train. “She might survive that. He’s gone, leave him be.”

               The others on the train were screaming, scrambling for the door. The general watched a few jump off of the train ahead of him, away from the fire. The soldier that was forcing Ellie forward stopped to grab Rhapsody’s burning body. He threw his coat over the fire, which extinguished her flames, but Ellie noted that he did not stop the flames. They were going to let Jacen’s flames consume the entire car.

               Ellie, Sloane, and the two soldiers who had come in first were lead from the train. The general turned back to the train and said, “Lock the doors.”

               “Wait, no,” Ellie gasped. She turned back to the train and without a person going near the train the doors shut, leaving the remaining passengers in the burning car. They tried both doors, trying to escape, but none of the doors would open. It also left the ticketer in the car to burn alive. “No!” Ellie screamed again, trying to move back to the train, to help the people escape.

               The general reached his hand out and yanked Ellie backward. She fell to the ground and crumpled in pain. “No, no,” the general said to her. “If you didn’t want to put people in danger you would never have run away, now you can see the consequences of your action.”

               The fires licked at the ceiling of the car. It was not a fast fire, but it was enough that it would hurt. The passengers gathered away from the fire in the center of the car and were pushing against the doors, hoping that it would somehow unlock.

               “Loqi.” Another carriage had pulled up beside the others and a man was stepping out of it, looking annoyed. This man was a dark skinned man with shining black hair, another Aronian, an Aronian with the army. Ellie would have been more surprised if she was not devastated. She was on the ground next to her sister’s unmoving body and watching a car burn, she was having a hard time concentrating on anything.

               “Rafe, good to see you,” the general, Loqi, said in a voice that said he was clearly lying. “What are you doing here?”

               “I was sent to make sure you did not go overboard,” the man said, and glanced at the car. “I think you went overboard.”

               Loqi rolled his eyes and waved his hand. The fires went out and the people on the train were safe. There was not even smoke filling the car.

               Rhapsody sat up from the ground, screaming and reaching to her head where the bullet had gone in. There was nothing. She felt at her forehead excessively, panicking, wondering if there was a bullet rattling in her brain still, until the doors of the train opened and Jacen stumbled out, looking as if he had never been on fire. He ran over to them, dropping to the ground with Rhapsody and the two clung to each other, whispering and crying.

               “Illusion,” Sloane was the one who said it. “How much of that was an illusion?”

               “Most of it,” Loqi explained. “Hello, I am General Loqi Quarant, I am a master of illusion.”

               “I really thought I was dead,” Rhapsody whispered hoarsely.

               “A master,” Loqi emphasized.

               The two soldiers that had entered the train first went over to the girls and forced them back to their feet. Logically, Ellie knew that if they had wanted the four of them dead they would all be dead, but she also knew they would be considered traitors for running.

               “Do you know how many people have tried what you have tried?” the general asked of them. “Do you think we do not anticipate this sort of thing?”

               “And yet, you made it onto the train at all,” Rafe questioned. The slender man looked young, but that was never a testament to age among those with special abilities. The other benefit to having an ability was aging at a much slower rate than others, though it depended on the person. There was no telling this man’s age just by looking at him, or if he had abilities or not. Ellie only assumed he did since his uniform matched Loqi’s in design, while the two soldiers had no silver lining their uniforms and no medals to speak of across their chests.

               “Yes, that town will have to be dealt with,” Loqi said. “The four of you should have been stopped, but that is not my problem now. My problem now is, here you are. I would love to just kill the four of you now, honestly, but since those with abilities are rare, the president would like you to be spared, for now.” He glanced over at Ellie, meeting her eyes. “Though you are worthless to us.”

               Rhapsody and Sloane both stepped in front of Ellie, guarding her from the general’s gaze. Ellie knew if he wanted her dead, she would die, whether they tried to stop him or not. “Please, spare her, we did not give her a choice in coming along.”

               “Oh, calm down,” Loqi laughed. “I won’t be killing anyone today. Besides, I do not kill beautiful things so easily.”    

               Ellie felt a creeping tingle go up and down her spine and she did everything in her power to keep her face neutral. Loqi was twisted, but she did not know what to believe from him either. His words could have been as much of an illusion as the fire had been.

               “General, I will take them back with me,” Rafe explained. “I think I can handle them.”

               “I have no doubt you can,” Loqi said. “I’m not sure I want to give you all of them, though. I could use companionship.”

               Rafe’s jaw flexed. “Let the girls stay together. Once we return the younger one will be returned home and they will likely not see each other again for a long while after an incident like this.”

               “I will return to Gentile ahead then,” Loqi said, conceded to Rafe. Ellie wondered if the two were similarly ranked as they both seemed to be at odds with one another. Loqi waved his soldiers on and they entered the carriage that had been parked.

               Rafe, who was flanked by his own similarly clad two soldiers, turned to the four of them. “You really could have been smarter,” he said to them. “No one even tries to escape on foot any more.

               “I am Rafe Yoakim. I am a general for the president, and unimpressed with the lot of you for your unoriginality. Also, Mr. Rafferty, please hand over your weapon.”

               Sloane narrowed his eyes and said, “As I see it, we could still try to fight our way out of this.”

               Rafe let out a laugh that was not cruel, just amused. He stepped up beside Sloane and pointed at the platform behind the train. “I want you to hit that rope that’s holding the cargo down.”

               “If I do that the cargo could come loose,” Sloane argued.

               “Shoot it,” Rafe demanded. “Come on, show me what you can do.”         

               Sloane did what he normally did and held up his arm and just took the shot. His shot went wide and did not even strike the cargo. His jaw fell and everyone stared in amazement. He was shocked enough that he did not bring his arm down right away, leaving Rafe enough time to reach out and take the revolver from him and give it to one of the soldiers.

               “Thank you, Mr. Rafferty,” he said. “Now you all know what I can do. I can make your powers non existent while you are in my presence, and depending on how strong you are, even when you are no longer in my presence. This is why we train people with gifts. You do not always have it, you need to know what you can do when it’s not there.”

               One of the soldiers opened the door of the carriage and stepped back. Rafe did not hesitate to start pushing the four of them into the carriage. “Now, let’s be on our way, shall we?”